| abstract
| - Baal teshuva movement ("return [to Judaism] movement") refers to a worldwide phenomenon among the Jewish people. It began during the mid-twentieth century, when large numbers of previously highly assimilated Jews chose to move in the direction of practicing Judaism. The spiritual and religious journey of those involved has brought them to become involved with all the Jewish denominations, the most far-reaching stage being when they choose to follow Orthodox Judaism and its branches such as Haredi Judaism and Hasidic Judaism. This movement has continued unabated until the present time and has been noted by scholars who have written articles and books about its significance to modern Jewish history. In response to this movement among the Jewish people there has been a corresponding response from the various Jewish denominations and rabbis, particularly from Orthodox Judaism, which calls its response kiruv or kiruv rechokim ("bringing close/er [the] distant [ones]") or keruv, and the terms "baal teshuva" and "kiruv" are often linked together indicating that the subject about either Jews returning to traditional Judaism or the efforts and responses to it. There has also been increased Reform Judaism outreach and Conservative Judaism outreach that has propelled the movement. The Baal teshuva movement has taken place wherever Jews live and in many different places under all sorts of varying circumstances: The Baal Teshuva movement — returnees to traditional Jewish observance — is one of the most startling phenomena of Jewish life in the past 20 years. New York magazine reports: The people making this sweeping change in their life grew up in a secular world. They went to good colleges and got excellent jobs. They didn't become Orthodox because they were afraid, or because they needed a militaristic set of commands for living their lives. They chose Orthodoxy because it satisfied their need for intellectual stimulation and emotional security. Therefore the Baal teshuva movement, as a modern version of previous Jewish "national" and international movements cuts across all cultures, continents, and communities. The Jews of the former USSR have little in common with American hippies, and Israelis have little in common with South African or Australian Jews but in all those countries and their Jewish centers there are Baal teshuva communities that keep on sprouting up at all levels, in all professions and walks of life. The Baal teshuva movement and the events it encompasses received the attention of President Ronald Reagan in a speech to the Bnai Brith in 1984 who quoted from the writings of Irving Kristol: Now, there's one final aspect of our national renewal that I must mention: the return that millions of Americans are making to faith — faith as a source of strength, comfort, and meaning. This new spiritual awareness extends to people of all religions and all beliefs. Irving Kristol has written, "the quest for a religious identity is, in the postwar world, a general phenomenon, experienced by Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike. It does not seem, moreover, to be a passing phenomenon, but rather derives from an authentic crisis — a moral and spiritual crisis as well as a crisis in Western, liberal-secular thought." In our country, Kristol asserts, "Ever since the Holocaust and the emergence of the state of Israel, American Jews have been reaching toward a more explicit and meaningful Jewish identity. And according to Rabbi Seymour Siegel of the Jewish Theological Seminary, this trend among American Jews is illustrated by a growing interest in Jewish history and the Hebrew language, and by the rise of — and I hope I get this right — Baal Teshuva movement — a powerful movement of Jews, young and old, Orthodox, Conservative, and Reformed, returning to the ancient ways of the faith. As Americans of different religions find new meaningfulness in their beliefs, we do so together, returning together to the bedrock values of family, hard work, and faith in the same loving and almighty God. And as we welcome this rebirth of faith, we must even more fervently attack ugly intolerance. We have no place for haters in America.
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